Total Physical Response

INTRODUCTION

A general approach to foreign language instruction which has been named 'the Comprehension Approach.' It is called this because of the importance it gives to listening comprehension. In the 1960s and 1970s research gave rise to the hypothesis that language learning should start first with understanding and later proceed to production (Winitz 1981).

After the learner internalizes an extensive map of how the target language works, speaking will appear spontaneously. Of course, the student's speech will not be perfect, but gradually speech will become more target-like. Notice that this is exactly how an infant acquires its native language. For example, a baby spends many months listening to the people around it long before it ever says a word. The child has the time to try to make sense out of the sounds it hears. No one tells the baby that it must speak. The child chooses to speak when it is ready to do so.

There are several methods being practiced, an attempt to apply these observations to foreign language instruction :

• Krashen and Terrel's Natural Approach. It shares certain features with the Direct Method. Emphasis is placed on students' developing basic communication skills and vocabulary through their receiving meaningful exposure to the target language. The students listen to the teacher using the target language communicatively from the beginning of instruction. They do not speak at first. The teacher helps her students to understand her by using pictures and occasional words in the students'native language and by being as expressive as possible.

• Another method that fits within the Comprehension Approach is Winitz and Reed's self-instructional program and Winitz' The Learnables. Students listen to tape-recorded words, phrases, and sentences while they look at accompanying pictures. The meaning of the utterance is clear from the context the pictures provides. The students are asked to respond in some way, such as pointing to each picture as it is described, to show that they understand the language to which they are listening, but they do not speak. Stories illustrated by pictures are also used as a device to convey abstract meaning.

• A new method, called the Lexical Approach, also fits within the Comprehension Approach. Developed by Michael Lewis, the Lexical Approach is less concerned with student production and more concerned that studentsreceive abundant comprehensible input. Especially at lower levels, teachers talk extensively to their students, while requiring little or no verbal response from them. Instead, students are given exercises and activities which raise their awareness about lexical features of the target language.
  

• James Asher's Total Physical Response (TPR). On the basis of his research, Asher reasoned that the fastest, least stressful way to achieve understanding of any target language is to follow directions uttered by the instructor (without native language translation).

TPR => one of the English teaching approaches and methods developed by Dr. James J Asher. It has been applied for almost thirty years. This method attempts to center attention to encouraging learners to listen and respond to the spoken target language commands of their taechers. In other words, TPR is a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical (motor) activity.

THE TECHNIQUES

Using commands to direct behavior
The use of commands is the major teaching technique of TPR. The commands are given to get students to perform an action that makes the meaning of the command clear.

Role reversal
Students command their teacher and classmates to perform some actions. Asher says that students will want to speak after ten to twenty hours of instruction, although some students may take longer. Students should not be encouraged to speak until they are ready.

Action sequence
At one point the teacher give three connected commands. For example, the teacher told the students to point to the door, walk to the door, and touch the door. As the students learn more and more of the target language, a longer series of connected commands can be given, which together comprise a whole procedure. A little later on students might receive the following instructions :

Take out a pen.
Take out a piece of paper.
Write a letter. (imaginary)
Fold the letter.
Put it in an envelope.
Seal the envelope.
Write the address on the envelope.
Put a stamp on the envelope.
Mail the letter.

This series of command is called an action sequence, or an operation. Many everyday activities, like writing a letter, can be broken down into an action sequence that students can be asked to perform.